scrawny

• scranny (dialectal)

A variant of dialectal scranny (“thin; lean; scraggy; poor; scanty; of inferior quality”), perhaps from Old Norse skran (“rubbish; junk”) +‎ -y. Compare Norwegian skran (“lean, thin, skinny”), English scrannel (“lean; meager; poor; worthless”).

Alternatively, perhaps from Old Norse skrælna (“to be shrivelled”).^[1]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈskɹɔːni/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈskɹɔni/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈskɹɑni/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːni

scrawny (comparative scrawnier, superlative scrawniest)

1. Thin, malnourished, and weak.
   • 1992, Robert Jordan, “Chapter 31: Assurances”, in The Shadow Rising (The Wheel of Time; 4), London: Orbit Books, published 2021, →ISBN, page 498:

     “Tell him, in these words, that I will have his scrawny bones before me now. Tell him, Byar, and bring him if you must arrest him and those filthy wretches who disgrace the Children. Go.”

• See also Thesaurus:scrawny

• scran